Various global or local communication networks (the Internet, the World Wide Web, local area networks and the like) offer a user a vast amount of information. The information includes a multitude of contextual topics, such as but not limited to, news and current affairs, maps, company information, financial information and resources, traffic information, games and entertainment related information. Users use a variety of client devices (desktop, laptop, notebook, smartphone, tablets and the like) to have access to rich content (like images, audio, video, animation, and other multimedia content from such networks) via a browser application, to retrieve, present and traverse information across the World Wide Web.
Browser applications, such as Google™ Chrome™, Microsoft™ Edge™, Mozilla™ Firefox™, Apple™ Safari™ and Opera™, usually includes interface elements such as an address bar to input a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of the desired resource, a viewport to display the resource, a refresh button to reload the current resource, back and forward buttons to go back to the previous and respective resources, a search bar to input terms into a search engine, a home button to return to the user's homepage, among others.
The volume of available information through various Internet resources has grown exponentially in the past couple of years. Several solutions have been developed in order to allow a typical user to find the information that the user is looking for. One example of such a solution is a search engine that can be accessed by the browser application. Examples of the search engines include Google™ search engine, Yandex™ search engine, Yahoo!™ search engine and the like. The user can access the search engine interface and submit a search query associated with the information that the user is desirous of locating on the Internet. In response to the search query, the search engine provides a ranked list of search results. The ranked list of search results is generated based on various ranking algorithms employed by the particular search engine that is being used by the user performing the search. The overall goal of such ranking algorithms is to present the most relevant search results at the top of the ranked list, while less relevant search results would be positioned on less prominent positions of the ranked list of search results (with the least relevant search results being located towards the bottom of the tanked list of search results).
The search engines typically provide a good search tool for a search query that the user knows apriori that she/he wants to search. In other words, if the user is interested in obtaining information about the most popular destinations in Italy (i.e. a known search topic), the user could submit a search query: “The most popular destinations in Italy?” The search engine will then present a ranked list of Internet resources that are potentially relevant to the search query. The user can then browse the ranked list of search results in order to obtain information she/he is interested in as it related to places to visit in Italy. If the user, for whatever reason, is not satisfied with the uncovered search results, the user can re-run the search, for example, with a more focused search query, such as “The most popular destinations in Italy in the summer?”, “The most popular destinations in the South of Italy?”, “The most popular destinations for a romantic getaway in Italy?”.
There is another approach that has been proposed for allowing the user to discover content and, more precisely, to allow for discovering and/or recommending content that the user may not be expressly interested in searching for. In a sense, such systems recommend content to the user without an express search request based on explicit or implicit interests of the user.
As a person skilled in the art of the present technology may appreciate, a quality of a user experience may not be solely defined by how relevant information content may be to a given user. Accordingly, how the information content is presented to a user may also be an important aspect of the user experience. In some instances, how the information content is presented to a user may be appreciated independently of how the information has been generated, selected and/or recommended. Multiple approaches as to how the information content is presented to a user via an electronic device have been developed. As a quantity of information content that can be presented to the user is virtually limitless attempts have been made to provide users with more intuitive navigational access to the information content, as an example, via specialized recommendation websites and software applications.
Moreover, the proliferation of devices with different screen sizes combined with the proliferation of multiple applications to access content, browse content, search content, all offering different interfaces and requiring switching between different applications may not only require more time, gestures, put a strain on the battery and require more processing power, but may also impoverish user experience.
US 2014095967 A1 discloses a method and apparatus for displaying information. When a terminal receives a request for starting a browser, the terminal obtains quick links and web applications that are cached in local database of the terminal and displays the obtained quick links by combinations of webpage icons and webpage titles in a middle screen display interface of a start page of the browser for the requester. When receiving a request for switching display interfaces of the start page of the browser, the terminal displays a search box in the start page of the browser or the obtained web applications by combinations of application icons and application titles in the start page of the browser.